The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-03-11
RECORD OF CONGRESS.

/ a heYtcW OF Ene WOrE OF the session just
CIosed-The Most Important Measures
/ Which Became Laws-A List of Those
| Which Failed-The Presidents Numer-
Yetoes.
WASHINGTON, March 5.-Tha XLIXth
Congress commenced its session Deem
Der 4, 1885, adjourned August 5, 1886, re
convened December 6, and adjourned sine
die yesterday. Of this time the Senate was
in session pa days and the House 251 days.
/ There were introduced in the House II, 25S
bills and 263 joint resolutions, on which over
| 5000 reports were made. being several thou.
! sand more bills and over 900 more reports
than were made in the XLVI1Ith Con-
gress, which had, in it's turn, beaten the
record. In the Senate there were intro
| duced 3, 351 bills and lis joint resolutions,
| on which ] 1888 written reports were made,
being upward of 500 more bills and over
400 more reports than in the record-break-
ing XIVIIIth Congress.
The total number of laws enacted was,
approximately, ,431, of which 1908 origi-
mated in the House and 335 in the Senate.
Two hundred and sixty-four of these be-
came laws by the expiration of the consti-
tutional ten days limitation. Forty bills
failed 10 become laws owing to the adj
| Journment of Congress, nine of them
at the close of the first session
There were 132 bills vetoed by the
| President, or twenty-one more than had
been vetoed from the foundation of the
Government down to the beginning of this
Congress. OF the vetoed bills ninety-four
originated in tho House and thirty-nine in
the Senate. But one private bill, that
granting pension to Joseph Romeiser,
and one public bill for the erection Of
Government building at Dayton, O., sue
ceeded in passing both houses over the
Presidents veto, although several others
obtained the requisite two-thirds vote in
the Senate only to fail in the House.
/ The death-rol of this Congress was also
an eXtraordin airy one, comprising the un-
precedented number of thirteen names in
the House and Senate. They are those of
Vice-President Hendricks, President of the
Senate; Senators Miller, of California;
Pike, of New Hampshire; Logan, of ILL
nois; and Representatives Hahn of Loui-
siana; Arnott, Beach and Dowdney, of New
York; Price, of Wisconsin; Cole, of Mary
land; Elwood, of Illinois; Duncan, of
Pennsylvania: and Rankin, of Wisconsin.
HOUSE MEASURES ENACTED.
Of the 1853 House bills which became
laws 275 were of more or less public nat
| uAO' vi tllO 80 bllS
pensions or relief to specially designated
persuns), 1856 became laws without the ap-
prevail of the President. The following is
list of more important House bills which
] have become laws:
To forfeit the Atlantic & Pacific railroad land
| grant; to increase the pension of widows and
| dependent relatives from eight dollars to twelve
dollars per month; the Dingley Shipping bill;
| to pension the Mexican war veterans; the
| Oleomargarine act; to authorize the transfer of
Highwood tract, near Chicago to the United
States for military purposes; to protect
homestead, settlers within railroad linn
| its; to enable National banking asso-
Citations to increase their capital stock
and change their name and location; to
| forfeit the ''Back-Bone' land grant; to reduce
| the fees on domestic money orders for sums
less than five dollars; to extend the Immediate
| delivery SYSTEM to provide for closing up the
| business OF the Court of Alabama Claims; to
establish additional life saving stations; for the
| construction of additional lighthouses; extend
| ing the free-delivery system to towns of
| 10000 inhabitants for the sale of the Chero-
| kee reservation in Arkansas; to amend she
statutes to require brewers to give bonds
| for three times their estimated monthly tax;
| for the issue OF postal notes in sums less than
| five dollars; to provide for the inspection of
| tobacco, cigars and snuff; to restrict ownership
OF lands in the Territories to American citizens;
| to prohibit Government employees from hiring
| or contracting out the labor of United States
prisoners; to amend the act prohibiting the i'm
| portation and immigration of foreigners under
| labor contracts; providing for the location of
a branch soldiers home west of the Rocky
| Mountains; for the relief of the Jeanette
| sufferers; amendatory of the act dividing Hi
nois into judicial districts and providing for the
holding of terms of court at PEORIA relative
| to contested elections; to loan articles in the
| Government departments to the Minnesota
| Industrial Exposition; to regulate the juris-
| diction of United States Circuit Courts;
| for the adjustment of land grants and
| the forfeiture of unearned lands to add
a number of cities to the list of Ma
tional bank reserve cities and to allow
part of the reserve to be kept in cities other
than New York; for the relief of settlers on the
| publiclands in Kansas and Nebraska; to provide
| for bringing suits against the Government; for
the erection of public buildings at Los Angeles,
| Cal, Springfield, Mo-, Ell Paso Tex, Santa Fe,
N. NJ, and Jefferson, Tex; to increase the limit
of cost of public buildings at Peoria, ILL.,, Gal
weston, Tex, Clarksburg, W. Va. Keokuk,
Ia, Chattanooga, Tenn, Detroit, Mich; for the
completion or improvement of public buildings
! at Dallas Tex, Des Moines Ia, Jackson,
| Tenn, and Hannibal, Mo-; for the purchase of
additional ground foE the building at Fort
| Wayne, Ind; for the purchase of site for
| Federal building at San Francisco.
| Forty House joint resolutions became
laws, the principal ones being as follows:
Directing the Commissioner Of Tabor to make
an investigation as to convict labor; authoriz-
| ing the Secretary of the Interior to use certain
unexpended balances for the relief OF the North
| ern Cheyennes of Wyoming to authorize the
| President to protect American fishing and
trading vessels and American fishermen in Ca
madam waters; authorizing an investigation of
the books, methods and accounts of the Pacific
| railroads.
SENATE MEASURES ENACTED.
| OF the total number of bills which passed
the Senate 800 became laws, including 115
of a public and 205 of strictly private
nature. The following is list of the more
| important:
State Commerce bill; for the retirement and
recoinage of the trade dollar; the Electoral
Count bill; for the allotment of lands in sew
| crafty to Indians; to repeal the Tenure-of-Of
flee act; to increase the annual appropriation
fsr the militia; to establish agricultural ez-
pertinent stations; to legalize the incor-
poration of trades unions; authorizing
the transmission of weather reports
through the mails free of postage; to in
crease the pension for loss of an arm or leg; to
indemnify the Chinese for losses sustained by
the Rock Springs (Wy. To- riot; for the relief
of Texas, Colorado, Oregon, Nebraska, Cali
fornia, Kansas, Nevada, Washington Territory
and Idaho; for the holding of terms of the
United States Courts at Bay City, Mich; to re-
move the charge of desertion from
the records of soldiers who enlisted
without having received discharges on
account of first enlistment; to amend
the law relating to patents, trademarks and
copyrights; to bridge the Mississippi river at
ST. Louis; to prohibit the importation of
opium; for the erection of public buildings at
San Antonio, Tex, Houston, Tex, Oshkosh,
Wis. Fort Smith. Ark, Owensborough, KY,
and Milwaukee, Wis; to increase the limit of
cost for public buildings at Oxford, Miss. and
Denver, Col; for the completion of public
buildings at Fort Scott and Wichita. Kan.
VETOED BY THE PRESIDENT.
The Senate bills vetoed were thirty-nine
in number, eleven being of a public and
twenty-eight of a private character. The
public bills vetoed were as follows:
To quiet the titles of settlers on the Des
Moines river lands passed over the veto in the
Senate, but failed of the necessary two-thirds
in the House,; for the erection of public build
ings at GAINESVILLE, o., Lafayette Ind, Sioux